Rod Milton’s game is known around the city and well beyond for its style, but it’s the substance of his play that has South High poised to make a serious run for the Central Mass. Division 1 championship.

Milton, a 6-foot senior guard with freakish leaping ability and a growing collection of crowd-pleasing dunks, has transitioned from athlete to all-around player. As a result, the No. 4 Colonels are off to a 6-0 start and are a shoo-in to earn a postseason berth.

Last year, South was unable to shake a slow start and missed the playoffs, but finished the season strong and has picked up where it left off.

“Last year was very disappointing for all of us,” said Milton, who is averaging 20 points per game. “We just weren’t as good as we thought we were. This year, we realized that we needed to play every game with intensity.”

The Colonels’ turnaround last season started when coach Pat Williams moved Milton to point guard, a switch that has worked out well for the entire team.

“Rod has improved his ball-handling and his court vision,” Williams said, “but more importantly, he’s accepted the leadership role. He’s become very vocal on both ends of the floor, and he’s the first to take responsibility when something goes wrong.”

While Milton willingly has deferred shots to a talented group of teammates that includes Kasheen Cunningham, Khalil Bryan-Robinson and Quahime Steele, the position switch hasn’t reduced Milton’s affinity for the spectacular.

“When it comes to athletic ability, Rod is off the charts,” Williams said. “As coaches, during the last few years we’ve almost gotten used to it, but there’s moments where we’re still amazed. Some of the dunks he’s had have actually stopped us in our tracks.”

Milton isn’t exactly sure what his vertical leap is in inches, but a slam he had last season against Fitchburg High provides concrete evidence that it’s far above average.

“The dunk against Fitchburg, it’s hard to explain — I’m not even really sure how it happened,” said Milton, who is undecided on where he’ll attend college but plans to play basketball there. “It was a missed shot and I crashed to the rim for a rebound, but then I just felt like I had a chance to do something, and I ended up with a put-back dunk over three guys.”

Milton credits genetics for some of his athletic talent, but he also has worked hard at it, performing thousands of squats and sprints since he threw down his first dunk at age 14.

Grand moment for Burncoat’s Sims

Burncoat High’s Shanelle Sims is the epitome of a quiet star. Sims, who has started for the Patriots since her freshman year, notched her 1,000th career point in Burncoat’s win over South two weeks ago.

Sims was unaware that the milestone was in sight until the start of the season, and never gave it much thought even as her teammates would do some quick math after each game and remind the senior how close she was.

“I was shocked and excited to find out I had a chance at 1,000 points,” Sims said. “When I came in as a freshman, that never even crossed my mind. But I still tried to not think about and just play the way I normally do.”

Sims’ normal style of play has changed over the years.

“When I was younger, I was really just concerned with offense,” she said. “Coach (Dan Rushton) told me I needed to work on my defense and I worked hard at it. Now I consider myself a better defensive player than offensive player.”

Sims is not sure if basketball will be in her future after the Patriots’ season ends.

“The door is definitely open for me to play basketball in college,” she said. “The most important thing to me is finding the right college and earning a degree. If I can do that, and play basketball, I’d love to. But school will come first.”

A new chapter was written in Inter-High basketball history Thursday night when Doherty High’s Jayna Cormier and South’s Katherine Edmonds got locked in an offensive showdown for the ages.

Cormier torched the Colonels for a career-high 38 points in Doherty’s 73-53 win. Edmonds, the leading scorer in Central Mass., struck for 35, including four 3-pointers.

Both juniors, Cormier and Edmonds meet again Jan. 31 when the Highlanders play at South.

St. John’s High senior captain Ken Harrington is hoping to miss at least two weeks with a bone bruise and a strained tendon he suffered in his left ankle after a Wachusett Regional player fell on him late in the final of the Laska Yuletide Invitational on Dec. 29.

In their first game without Harrington, St. John’s lost Friday night to Brockton, a state finalist a year ago. The Pioneers travel to St. Peter-Marian Tuesday night to face the Guardians for the first time since the teams met for the Division 1 championship last year.

Contact Tom Flanagan at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.